In this mini episode, you will learn the interesting verb “make do.”
Episode 436 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting verb “make do.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“This is Bing Su, from China. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 436 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting and useful phrasal verb. If you don’t remember, phrasal verbs are a kind of compound verb. They’re made of two parts.
This phrasal verb is make do. Make do.
That’s m-a-k-e, d-o. Make do.
It might sound a little bit strange to think of that as one verb, make do, but that is how we use it. We use it as one verb.
And what does it mean to make do? To make do means to manage or to try to succeed with limited resources. With resources that might not be enough, that might not be good enough for what you are trying to do. I think that might sound a little bit complicated. It might sound more complicated than this special verb really is.
Let me give you an example of the kind of situation where somebody might use make do, and then I think you will understand what it means and how to use it.
Imagine that you want to prepare a special meal. Maybe you have friends coming over, and you want to give them a delicious and special dinner. But you had a little bit of bad luck. Let’s say that your car broke down. You could not use your car to go to the grocery store to buy all of the special ingredients that you needed. Instead, you realize that you will have to use whatever ingredients, whatever food, you already have in your kitchen.
When you look at all of the food that you can use to make your special dinner, you might say, “I have to make do with the food that I already have.” I have to make do with the food I already have. In other words, “I don’t have the opportunity to do this the way I want to. I don’t have the opportunity to prepare the kind of special dinner I wanted to. I will have to use what I already have. I will have to use these resources that might seem limited or inadequate.”
This isn’t the kind of food that you wanted to use, but this is what you have. So you will have to make do with this food. You will have to manage or try to succeed with the resources that you have instead of with the resources or the ingredients that you wish you had. You will have to make do with the food you have.
One thing I should tell you about this special verb is that you can use it all by itself. You can just say make do and not “make do with something.” So, going back to this example of having to use the ingredients that you have to make your special dinner, you could say, “Well, I didn’t have a chance to go to the grocery store. I will just have to make do.” I will just have to make do.
In other words: “I will have to manage with the things that I have instead of the things I wish that I had.”
And that is make do, an interesting and useful verb that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 436 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Bing Su recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!